Personal branding strategies

- Hello there, I am Jessi Hempel I am host of "Hello Monday" and I'm a Senior Editor at Large here at LinkedIn. Welcome to everyone joining us from around the world. We have all kinds of folks I want you to drop where you're coming from in the comments if you haven't done so already. Hello there to Scott in Georgia, to Anna in Washington, to Shilpi in India, and David in Switzerland, and Andreas in Argentina. Today's conversation is for anyone who's ever said, "I know I need a personal brand but I don't want to be online all the time." Or "Networking just feels awkward." Or "I'm not the loudest voice in the room. Does that mean I'll get overlooked?" If all that sounds familiar, well, you're in the right place. Our guest expert today is Goldie Chan. She's a LinkedIn Top Voice, a TED speaker, and she's author of the book "Personal Branding for Introverts." She's helped professionals at companies like Google and Microsoft build strong, authentic reputations. And today, Goldie is going to be sharing that playbook, the playbook for how to do just that with us. Our goal is a really tactical session packed with takeaways. Now, I want you to drop your questions for Goldie in the comments and get started early because we've got a full house. We will have a lot of questions. We'll answer as many of them as we can live, and a full replay will be available right here on this page after the broadcast. Let's jump in. Welcome to the studio, Goldie, it's great to have you here. - Thank you so much for having me. It's so lovely to be here. - Well, Goldie, you are truly an expert on personal branding, which leads to my very first question. What is a personal brand and why do I need one? - Okay, so let's start with the most common question I get around personal branding. So the most common question I get is, "What is personal branding versus reputation?" - [Jessi] Yeah. - So to me, reputation is the story that others tell when you're not in the room. And personal branding is the story that you do tell when you are in the room. And this can be a virtual room like we're in right now. - You know, personal branding, I've always thought that it was important, but I always thought that it was like the purview of people who intend to be well known or famous. - [Goldie] Right. - Does everybody need personal branding? - I think the irony with personal branding now is not even that everyone needs personal branding, but if you are present online, if you're in the job search market, you probably already have a personal brand. So I think it's so helpful to think about, can I curate that personal brand? Can I have more of control over what the story that I'm telling around the personal brand is? - So it's not do I need one, it is, you have one. - [Goldie] You have one. - So how do you get to control that brand? How do you get to nurture it and make sure that it represents what you want to represent? - Right, so I think the best way to think about personal branding and where to start is what are your big goals? Or if that feels overwhelming, what are your smaller goals with your personal brand? Are you looking to climb up the corporate ladder? Are you looking for a new job? Are you simply looking to refresh the online or offline presence that you have? What is that goal first? I think sometimes when we don't think about our goal, what we end up doing with our personal brand is we say, "I'm going to post 100 videos or do this." And there's no trajectory with that. - It all becomes very diffuse. - Yes. - And you're not accomplishing anything. And I'm going to add a twist because today we're not just talking about personal branding. - No. - We are targeting introverts. - [Goldie] Yes, yay, introverts. - And let me tell you, I am pretty sure that a lot of you folks who are joining us today, you are here because you identify as introverts. Let me know in the comments, do we have any introverts in the house? Let us know who you are. I'm going to ask you a really basic question here. How do I know if I'm an introvert? - So there are so many classic definitions of introverts. I will give you the unclassic version of what I think an introvert is. So I think of an introvert as imagine you're at a social event, or you're at a corporate event and you talk to someone who is so interesting, you know, just really a joy to talk to, and you feel your battery, your internal energy battery, slowly dip down over time. That probably means you're an introvert versus if you're an extrovert, or an ambivert, you feel your battery slowly fill up over time talking to that person, being in that room full of people. And I think that that to me is the example of an introvert versus an extrovert is does my battery kind of go down over time or does it rise over time with people? - Okay, so here is a prominent misconception that I think people may have about introverts. I'm curious what you think. I think people think that introverts are quiet. It's not necessarily true, right? - No, so I have a tiny section in my book about loud introverts, and I think that introverts can be loud when they really care about something. So one side fact that I think is really fun is I'm an Archie Comics writer, and I-- - Wait, wait, hold on a second for that. You write the Archie Comics? - I write the Archie Comics. - Okay. - I'm an Archie Comics writer. - Okay. So keep going. - Yes, so I write Archie Comics, Team Betty, by the way, for anyone who's watching and loves Archie Comics. And one of my favorite things is I will run into introverts who are so quiet, they'll quietly line up and wait for me to say, sign their comic book for them. And then when they talk to me, they are like this explosion of joy and enthusiasm. And they're so energetic. And they're so loud, which we classically think and, you know, bless to Susan Cain's "Quiet" because that is such a classic and delightful book. But I think it's so helpful to think introverts also can be loud, especially when they're passionate and they care. - Right, so it's not about the volume. - No. - It's about what it takes from you to be in conversation with others, and that's in conversation IRL. There are lots of ways to be in conversation with others about your brand. And that's what I want to get into. Now, folks, we're going to get to your questions in just a minute, but before we get there, you know, you have this incredible framework for how to think about developing a personal brand. You call it the five Cs. And I want you to tick through it with us real quick. You can start with the first, which is clarity. - Absolutely, so I'm going to do this because we talked about this in the green room. I actually have a Post-it note that has all my five Cs, so I can say them in order. So the first one is clarity, which is who you are. The next one is consistency, which is what you show. The third one is competency, what you can do. The fourth one is confidence. - You're moving way too fast. I'm back on consistency, number two, who you are. - Let's start with clarity, who you are then. - Okay. - Yeah. - Okay, so we got clarity who you are, which is essentially you need to start by knowing what you want. I mean, this gets back to your goals. Like, the point you began with. Like, you need to know what you're about, right? - You need to know what you're about. And you need to know at the core, what is it that you like to not only accomplish, right? But who do you want to present yourself as? So do you want to be known as a writer or a "Hello Monday" host? - And folks, as you are listening, I want you to keep these five Cs in mind because I think so much of what we're going to talk about together is going to tie back to one of these five Cs. The second is consistency. - Yes. - Why is consistency important? - It's so important to keep showing up in the same way over time because we're humans, we see little dots, little data points of each other. And the more you can have those data points be really consistent over time, the more someone will remember you for exactly how you want to be remembered. - I think I've seen some research that says in branding, not personal branding, but branding broadly, people need to see a message seven times to begin to hold it. That's what you're talking about, right? - Exactly, exactly. - Okay, so then we get to competency, which is basically what? - So competency is knowing what you know and showing what you know. So I love to say it that way because so many people are so good at what they do, and they're such experts, but they would never call themselves experts because that feels very braggy. And I love also thinking about confidence versus ego, which we can go into a little bit later, but I think it's very confident to have competency and to show that competency. - Okay. So that was three. We're going to get to four, but before we do, I just have to say, so many of you all in the comments identify as introverts. We've got great responses. Greg, Monica, Bernardo, they all say they used to be one. What does that mean? Mirna says she's an online introvert. Lots of ambiverts in the crowd as well. - Yes. - Okay. So number four of the five is confidence. - Yes. - Is confidence something that you can muster if you don't organically feel it? - Yes, to me, confidence takes, and I'm going to throw in a fun S word, if I may. Confidence takes a little stupidity. - [Jessi] Walk me through it. - So I think that when we are confident, we need to take a little bit of a leap of faith knowing that we know what we know and we can show that. So confidence is how you show up. It can even be in your, as we're sitting here, right? Confidence can even be in your posture that you present yourself with. - Sitting up a little high as I hear you say that. - And confidence can also be in the way that you talk with someone else and the way that you communicate. I think confidence is in so many of those elements, but at its core, confidence is how you feel and how you know that you are the, say, best person for this job. - Okay. There is a fifth and critical C. - Yes. And it's community. And I love community because community is who you surround yourself with. Now, I always think about personal branding like this. If you are a person with a personal brand in the middle of a forest and there is no one else around you, you don't have a personal brand, you just have a lot of trees. And I love trees but you don't have a personal brand because you need an audience. You need a community in order to have a personal brand. - The brand exists in the exchange. And such a sustaining community you need, right? I mean, you're particular about what it means to grow the right community. - Yes, you need to have a community that aligns with not only your goals but your interests. And I think it's also helpful to think community, I think becomes so dry when we think about it in the context of our career but you can have and be part of delightful communities that are outside of your career that then bring you career opportunities. I think a lot about my amazing partner who's here today and taking some backstage pictures, but he runs a fun cat group. - Cat group. - Cat group. And he loves cats. And in this amazing cat group, which is massive, people have adopted cats, but people have also gotten job opportunities, people have made friends, people have found their romantic partners in this cat group that maybe doesn't exactly have everything to do with work. - It's participating in the community. Okay, I want to bring the rest of you all in and get ready because from here on out, it's mostly you all. This question comes from Richard R. in New Jersey, letting work speak effectively. And Richard, I struggle with this. "I've always preferred to put my head down and let my work speak for itself. How can I adapt that approach into an effective personal brand? What shifts should I make?" - So I think when I hear this, I always meet people who say that "I want to keep my head down. I don't want to make waves at work." I think there's this misconception that speaking up for yourself means being loud in an incredibly obnoxious and egotistical way. But I want to say immediately, that's not true. You can show up at work and not be that obnoxious person that we don't like. But what you can do is, first of all, think about showing up online and offline, right? So tactically, when we're thinking about these things, one thing to do is when you're in a meeting physically at work or over Zoom or whatever you're doing, Teams, raise your hand once per small group meeting. And what is helpful for me, and I know this is, and I literally have that Post-it note with me, is I will write down before the meeting one thing that I want to say, and then I just have it there with me. So if I get nervous, if I say, "I don't remember what that was that I wanted to say," I have that physical note with me. So that's one tip that's hopefully helpful for offline. - I love that tip. Always speak in a meeting. Think about it beforehand in pregame. - Yes. - Okay. This question comes from the UK from Mbafan Ezike. It's about evolving a personal brand. Can my personal brand evolve without confusing my audience? Or does evolution strengthen credibility? - Ooh, that is such a great question. I think at the core, I'm going to use a very nerdy example because I'm a nerd. I think about Pokemon, I think about-- - I mean, it's not where my head went first, but keep going. - So when you think about Pokemon, if you're familiar at all, they evolve from different versions of themselves that eventually get more and more complex. But at the core, they all start as a say, Bulbasaur. They all start as a basic character. However, there's certain elements that are translated from every single version. And that's what you want to think with your personal brand because if you start here, and I know that, you know, when I was on my journey in corporate, I started as a marketing assistant, and eventually became head of marketing. But throughout this, I had the same skillsets that just grew over time. So yes, I absolutely believe that you can grow your credibility if you carry the same core principles through your career and your creative journey. - Okay, so what I love about this, Goldie is that I think that sometimes when we get so wed to our brand, it becomes a little bit of a cage and doesn't allow us to express the full breadth of our personality. And that actually leads beautifully into this question from Lucienne in the US who says, "I'd really love to know how I can meld my playful and unconventional side into my branding while still coming off as professional and reliable. - Oh my gosh, so I have green hair, which if you're watching this, you can probably see that. And one of the things that I was told very early on was, "You absolutely cannot have colored hair and be taken seriously in any context." However, I've spoken on stages around the world with my green hair without ever having to change that. And I think part of that is your credibility and your expertise. And if you bring these two things to the table, you're allowed that playfulness and that joy. And I think also, let's be honest, in this day and age, we need more of that joy. - We do need more of that joy. And your green hair is such a stroke of genius when it comes to personal branding, regardless of whether you had it before or after you began to think about branding for yourself. Okay, let us talk about how we network strategically in order to unlock new opportunities. I know a lot of you who are here, myself included, we're thinking about, well, the personal brand is a tool to get to whatever we are reaching for. The word networking can kind of put people off. And so I wonder if you might begin by framing networking a little bit for us. - Absolutely, so I love a phrase you said before, in fact, I use this phrase, so this is why I know we're going to be friends. But one phrase that you used was in conversation with. And I love this phrase because that is what networking is at its core when it's done right, and when it's done without draining our batteries, whether we're an introvert, extrovert, or ambivert. But I think it's so helpful that you are constantly in conversation with other people and you're connecting with them. And that at the end of the day is so important for networking. - I think that's right and we're going to talk specifically about how we do that. And specifically about how we do that as introverts, right? I mean, if you're an introvert, traditional networking can really drain your battery, right? It's not giving you much back. - No, no. - But you have a lot of tips for networking, right? - Yes. So I will start with one. When you are at that big conference, that massive conference, and you are so overwhelmed, I think the worst things you can do is say, "I'm going to meet 300 people at this conference." - That's a terrible idea. - It's a terrible idea. - [Jessi] Even for extroverts. Bad idea, guys. - But if you say, "I'm going to meet three people at this conference, and I'm going to have amazing in-depth conversations with those three people," what ends up being the magic there is you not only remember those three people, but those three people remember you. And that's the connection aspect. - Yeah. - Yeah. - So when we're talking about how to preserve our energy, you also talk about the importance of using quiet focus and taking strategic breaks, right? - Yes. - So talk to us a little bit about that. - So I think so much of our workday, we are go, go, go, go, go. And I'm sure you've been there too when you've been in back-to-back meetings or filming or any of that. But with quiet focus, what I like to do is take time off of your workday. And that can be as simple as 5 to 10 minutes, go into a quiet room. Or literally, if you're at once again, a conference, step outside and I'm going to say something incredibly revolutionary. Are you ready? - I'm ready. - Okay, so when you step outside, you're not going to look at your phone or iPad or any digital device for two of those 10 minutes. You're going to not engage online. - It is such a default crutch for me that I would need to leave my phone behind me in a bag in order to not reach for it the moment that I step into my own space. I'm embarrassed to say that to you, Goldie. I do not like that about myself but it is hard. - It's hard and that's why I say it, because when you say, take that 10 minutes, and everyone has 10 minutes in their day to do this, taking that two minutes helps reset your brain a little bit. And I think so many of us are in default mode of, "I'm going to immediately open social media. I'm going to immediately look at these five videos. I'm going to, oh, no. And the worst is I'm going to immediately open my email." Because email, as we know, is a bottomless pit. - Bottomless pit. - Bottomless pit. - And it will take and take and take from you. And getting that quiet refocus allows you to go back with your battery charged. - Yes, exactly. - Right. Okay, another tip that comes up, and then we'll get to some more of y'all's questions. The importance of a one-on-one and a small group interaction, you suggest we really leverage this, right? - Yes, so I think introverts, and let's be real, some extroverts are so good at this, but introverts are so good at communicating one-on-one, and they're so good at the deep conversations and really having that in-depth connection and being able to really listen, right? I think listening is so deeply underrated. - Listening is underrated. We know that to be true. We got a lot of folks in the audience. It's great to have you here. We've got Jose in Brazil and Mohamed in Ireland, Maureen in Pennsylvania, Able in Maryland, Simon in the UK where it is likely past dinner or around dinner time. Thank you for being with us. Okay, let's get to some of y'all's questions. This one comes from Michael L. in San Francisco where it is much closer to breakfast time. "Lots of loud introverts in the chat who want advice here. Do you have specific advice for loud introverts, people who can speak up and command a room, but only briefly?" - Yes, so I would say that in many contexts, I myself am a loud introvert. I have a burst of energy. I can speak on stage, I can do this, and then I need quiet time. So what I try to do is build in quiet time. So if you are say out and you're doing a conference or you're doing an event, I think it's so important that you build in that hour of rest time. So you have that beautiful buildup, you have that beautiful sparkle and shine, and then you give yourself... (Goldie sighing) - Some downtime. - Some downtime. That deflating time. This question, this question comes from Mike in New Zealand. I love it. "How do I break the ice with another introvert?" - Okay, I recently did an introvert workshop at a conference, and there was quite a few other workshops happening at the same time, and I was the introvert one. No one talked to each other in line. - [Jessi] What? - It was the quietest queue I've ever seen. And when we got into the room, everybody filed very quietly into the room. I made them do this one exercise, which I apologized and said, "You're not going to like this. We're going to do a script, right?" And you and I know what scripts are, but essentially it's I'm going to give you some words and you're going to just say them out loud. So this was the script. Hi, my name is, and then you filled your name. So I'd say, hi, my name is Goldie. And then I'd say, what's your name? And then you as Jessi, you would say, my name is Jessi. How are you enjoying the conference? Or what are you up to today? Or what are you interested in, right? And that was the script. It just was, "My name is, what's your name?" And I had them practice this back and forth. - So the assumption there is that it's the start. We need to help. It's the cold start problem times two. - Right. - I love that. Okay. This question comes from Nilotpal somewhere in the United States. Nilo, if you're in the chat, Nilotpal, let us know where in the US you're coming from. It's about making a pivot from academia. And Nilotpal needs some advice. "I'm comfortable networking virtually, but I get conscious at in-person events. And also presenting my competencies and branding tailored to industry needs is my biggest challenge." Do you have advice? - Yes, so this is why I have an entire chapter called "The internet is for introverts" because I think so many introverts shine on the internet. But let's talk about in person, small talk is incredibly difficult. And we just talked about that cold open. But I think one tactical thing that you can do is, first of all, it's helpful to write down what we're competent in. Words are magic. As we're both writers, you know this. It's helpful to write down, "I am," and this is going to sound really hilarious, but "I am good at," right? Or, "My competencies are." And I want you to write that down. And I love a good Post-it note. So, you know, Post-it notes. But put that on your bathroom mirror and say, "I am confident." And that's what you'll carry with you when you go travel, before you speak at conferences, "I am competent in," and it starts to rewire our brain a little bit when we tell ourselves good things. - Yes, it should be a daily practice. It can be a daily practice. This question comes from Hilesh in Mauritius, reaching the right people on LinkedIn. Hilesh asks, "How do you ensure that your personal branding post reaches your target audience on the platform?" - Oh my gosh, this is such a great question. I love this. All right, not to light up when we talk about LinkedIn, but yay, LinkedIn. I think one of the ways to think about it is, first of all, who are you talking to? So if you've identified who your target demographic is, you're already halfway through that puzzle, okay? So if you want to know who you're talking to, identify that first. And once we've identified it, then we can tailor our content. And that's when we think about content strategy. We can start to tailor our content towards that audience. What would they like to read? What questions are they asking? What conversations would you like to be with them in? - So what I'm hearing underneath that is that the most important thing is not some gimmick, not some type of content but actually speaking authentically to the people you most want to reach. - Yes. I think it's all about language. I think people think about language in terms of here's English versus Spanish, et cetera. But I think that we all speak in different languages with our peers or with people that we want to work with, et cetera. So it's helpful to know the language of your target audience. - I love that. Okay, ww're looking for some advice for job seekers with this next question. It comes from Chuck in Pennsylvania. "Can you address this personal branding approach for job seekers in what is a very tough market?" - Oh gosh, so we were just talking about this in the green room. So I love that this question came up. - And I would say, if you are feeling like it is a tough market, you're not alone. It is a tough market. - It is a tough, tough market. So first of all, I think personal brands are so beautiful because they allow opportunities and doors to open for you. And as an introvert, who doesn't love someone else starting the conversation, right? And opening that door. So that aside, let's think tactically, what are some ways that you can help yourself get to that next job? First of all, I'd love you to start thinking about keywords, right? So especially when we're on a beautiful platform like LinkedIn, one thing that's helpful that I notice not everyone does is even in our headline, even in our summary, sometimes people use different words when they should really be using the word like engineer, writer. What is the job title that you want? Product manager, putting that job title in that headline means that you're now crawlable by those amazing LinkedIn and search engines and that that SEO is so much stronger because you're saying, "I am a product manager. I want to be known for that. I want to have LinkedIn put me in those search results for product managers." So knowing those keywords and then placing them on your LinkedIn profile is going to help so much. - I love that it's a beginning. And, of course, this is a rich vein of inquiry in and of itself. And I encourage folks to explore. I want to talk a little bit about how we do this important online branding without being drained by being on the internet 24/7, all the time because if we're busily personal branding, and we are on, not just LinkedIn, but all the platforms that we can be on to express what we want people to know about us, after a while, we run out of minutes in a day. - Right. - How do you do it? - I try to segment out time. So in my day, I will say, "I am going to spend 30 minutes to one hour answering comments or I'm going to spend two hours diving into that terrible email inbox. Or I will go across platforms and I'm going to spend 30 minutes here, 30 minutes there, 30 minutes there." And I found that setting a timer is so helpful. And I will bonus give you another place I actually set a timer at. - Where? - And that's parties. - Really? - Yes. So I will go to a social event. I'm an introvert with social anxiety. I will set a timer and I will say, "After 45 minutes, I give myself permission to leave." - I love that. I mean, I love that. And I so appreciate you just saying so eloquently, "I have social anxiety in these situations" because me too, and so many people I know, right? It's a great technique. You have so many tips and tricks. One thing that I am interested in is like you put out a lot of content online. - Yes. - When and how are you doing that? - I never sleep. No, just kidding. No, that's terrible. Strike back. Take that back. You didn't hear that. I am constantly creating though. So when I am, for example, walking around beautiful New York City, which is where we are right now, I will think, "That's interesting. I should do a little video. I should do little photos." So I'm always thinking creatively, that's just me as a person. When I don't have that kind of creative mindset though, I do try to bucket content. I think just like we have a bank account for our finances, our money, it's helpful to have a content bank for our content. So I love to create pieces that are evergreen that live in my content bank, and that I batch create so I can always reach into that bank account and pull out a beautiful LinkedIn article or a post that I've been sitting on that I wanted to share. And that helps. - Okay, so do you do that, do you essentially batch that content and work on it during your most creative time of the week? Or is that work that you do in the margins or during sort of more administrative windows of your week? - I wish I could tell you I did it during the administrative windows because that would be easier for me. But definitely I do it when I feel very creative. So for me, it's a feeling when I know, oh, I am really in it right now. Like I have just the best creative juices. So I'm going to take this next two to three hours and I'm going to create a ton of content, and I edit my own videos. I'm going to edit videos, I'm going to write articles. And I batch during that time when I'm very creative. For other people who maybe the creative flow isn't quite like that, it's helpful to say, "Okay, every Tuesday from 10 to 11 AM I'm going to sit down and write a couple posts." - Yeah. I love that. And whichever strategy works for you, that comes down to knowing yourself well. - Yes. - Okay. Just a few shout outs to folks in the audience. We got Xavier in India where it's very late at night. Fazil in Dubai. Stacy in New Mexico, Petra in Switzerland, Sarah in Alberta, Luciana in Brazil. We have a packed house, folks. - Love this. - How about recycling your content? You know, there's this thing about social, which is when something works really, really, really well, it's likely to work well again in the future. How do you feel about recycling good content? - I think this is the power of evergreen content, because when you do evergreen content, you can almost always recycle it. And I love that. So I would say this, the caveat being, if you take a post that does well and then you repost it every single day of that same week, maybe not a great idea. But if you take that same post and two weeks later you repost it, great. Why not? I think we're all busy and sometimes exhausted people. So there's nothing wrong with giving it a little time to breathe and then reposting. - Okay. So you say two weeks. Is there a timeframe by which everything old is new again on social? - Oh gosh, I will say this. If you take a post that did well and then three months later, which is, as you know, a lifetime in social media, and you repost that same piece three months later, most likely most folks will not remember that you did that at all. - Wow. - Yeah. - [Jessi] That is both damning and wonderful. - Yes. - Okay. All right, a few more questions. This one comes from Molly in Illinois who is curious about how to feel confident asking for referrals. She says, I'm highly uncomfortable approaching my community to request referrals, recommendations or leads. How do you suggest going about that without coming across as awkward? - Okay, so I think that there's a great phrase I want to introduce to this conversation. And that's Cringe Mountain. - [Jessi] Cringe Mountain. - How do we summit Cringe Mountain, which is the same idea of awkwardness. Well, first of all, I think once again, it's helpful. I'm going to throw back another S word I use, which people don't like to hear, which is stupid. I think we need to be both smart and stupid at the same time. I think that we need to be really intelligent about what our ask is and doing a lot of research about what that ask is. And then when it comes time to actually doing that post, we need to be a little stupid. We need to jump off the cliff into Cringe Mountain. No, we need to be able to make that leap of faith and then do the ask. But it's so helpful to have done that research and say, and also have an incredibly narrow ask. So if you're ask is, "I love referrals for my lawnmower business. I'm looking for people who are in the tri-state area, who are families," et cetera, et cetera. See how I'm kind of narrowing down? The narrower the ask is, the better. - Molly, I love this question 'cause it's something I struggle with a lot too. And, you know, one thing I think is one way that I try to push myself up Cringe Mountains. - Yes. (Goldie laughing) - Because that's what it requires you to push yourself into a place where you are uncomfortable. And that is an emotional equation. You can't logic your way out of it at the end of the day. But one thing I do is I try to think about what's the worst that can happen? And to play out the worst scenario in my mind, and to stop and think about, "Well, could I live with that?" Worst scenario is they say no. And the next time I see them at the grocery store, they give me that look that says, "Oh my God, I can't believe she would ask me for that." And I think all the way through that, and I think, "Well, how does that really, I'm okay." And sometimes when you get to the other end of that, you realize the risk is not nearly as big as you think it is. - No, and I think as someone with anxiety, I also go through that thought experiment of everything could explode in this situation, but the chances of that happening are so low. And I think it's really powerful to be the person that opens your own doors too. - Yeah, be the person who opens your own doors. - Yes. - Okay, this question comes from Nelson dos Santos in Angola. "Are there advantages to being an introvert? If not, is it possible to become an extrovert?" - Oh my gosh. I will say this. I was sitting at a dinner at this like beautiful female entrepreneur dinner. I loved it, and the woman sitting to my left, she just said, "I know how to go from an introvert to extrovert in 30 days." She's like, I'm going to do a course on this, all this stuff." And I just sat there thinking, that's so interesting because my entire book, the thesis is you never have to become an extrovert. There are so many superpowers that introverts have that are so strong. And introverts can be amazing leaders, introverts can be amazing teammates, et cetera. And let's start with a couple of these superpowers. First of all, and we've gone over this before, introverts are deep listeners and deep thinkers. So they can synthesize data and information and come back with a really delightfully analytical point of view that takes in all of these different data points. That's one. Also, introverts know how to survey the room a lot of times because maybe they're a little bit more in that moment quiet. So they're seeing what other people are saying. Or even, I know some introverts who are great at reading body posture. So they can see just physically how other people are, and they can read the room that way. So introverts have so many superpowers. - I love that. Okay, this question is about branding mistakes that introverts in particular make. It comes from Shilpi in India. What's a personal branding mistake... Oh, I'm sorry, this one's from Shubham. I jumped ahead. Shilpi, I'll get to yours in a minute. What's a personal branding mistake you often see introverts make when they're trying to put themselves out there? - Okay, so this is a mistake I also see with extroverts, I'll throw it out there. But a lot of times with introverts, here's what happens. You think to yourself as an introvert, "I'm going to be active on social media. I'm going to be active on social media." Then you dump 50 pieces of content over the course of three days. And you say, "Now I've done it. I've done social media. For the rest of my life I no longer need to do social media again." And unfortunately, this is where that consistency comes in. Dumping a ton of content in one go, in one short period of time, that doesn't work for developing that consistency of a social media brand. So that's the number one mistake I see folks do, which is not spreading the wealth, really thinking in a concentrated way of, "I'm going to do this for one week, and then I have ta da, I have a personal brand." - Right, the consistency comes harder for introverts because they run out of energy more quickly. So you have to be more thoughtful about it. Okay, this is Shilpi's question. It concerns posting cadence so that you don't burn out. It's kind of related. "For someone who isn't naturally extroverted, how often should one realistically create or engage online in order to stay visible without burning out?" - Okay, so this depends on, first of all, how much time do you have to create? And then how much energy do you have to create, right? Our time and our energy. What I like to do is I like to start with the easiest possible framework, which is one post a month, which sounds like not enough, but I'll tell you, so many people will post, once again, so much in three days, and then they won't post for six months. So what I ask is if you're going to already post all of that delightful new content, think about posting once a month. And everyone has one or two hours a month to start posting once a month. And the goal here is try that for three months or four months. If you can keep it up, then start trying to post every two weeks, right? And then we are going to want to post eventually weekly. So the goal is to post weekly. - To build the muscle, build the muscle, to hit weekly. Okay, this question comes from Miles. It's about staying authentic with AI proliferation. - Phew. - I know. "In a world where AI can make anyone look polished, how do you keep a personal brand human and original without falling into workslop?" - You know, I have so many thoughts and feelings about this, and I'll start with one word that I think has been vilified, but I think is beautiful and that's mistakes. I think it is human to err, right? And I love that phrase because when you see a ton of AI slop, the slopification of the internet, I like to actually think about it as the blandification of the internet. AI makes us incredibly bland because if I put in a prompt and you put in a prompt into the same LLM, it will likely give us very similar results. And that then makes everything bland. But you know what's wonderful is when we have little mistakes sprinkled in there, which only we as humans can do. And I think it's really... I would rather read something that has more mistakes in it, a couple misspellings here and there, or maybe the grammar was incorrect. Sorry, my sixth grade English teacher. But whatever that is, lightly sprinkled in there because that is what makes it human. And the more human we can make things, the more our content is quite frankly attractive. - It's going to be effective for us. Okay, I want to circle back to the five Cs with this question from Dev Raj in India. "How can introverts build a personal brand that grows through clarity and consistency, not constant visibility?" This really speaks to what you said earlier about posting cadence. - Yes. So I think it's really about, once again, you said building that muscle. Absolutely. I think it is all about, okay, I will commit to posting every Wednesday, right? So say you're going to post weekly. Every Wednesday, you're going to do that post, and after a while, you become used to it. I think for those of us starting the workout journey, the same thing was true where we said, "Okay, I'm going to work on on Tuesday and Thursdays." And the first couple weeks, the first maybe couple months, it sucks, right? It is unpleasant. But the more you start to do that, the more you get used to that schedule and the less exhausting it gets. I'm not telling you don't post five times a day for the next five years of your life. I'm saying pick a cadence. Pick a schedule that works for you and that you can upkeep, given a little bit of time and energy. - I love that. - Yeah. - Okay, this question concerns harnessing creativity. It is our final question together. It is from Gabriele in Italy. Thank you, Gabriele. "Can your creativity really be scheduled? I guess it depends on one's own attitude. No matter if introverted, extroverted, or both. Can it be?" - Gosh, I just came from one of the largest creativity conferences in the US, so I love this question. I think that it's so funny. So absolutely. I will answer yes, in terms of creativity, of course, can be scheduled because we can set aside time and clear our mind and clear the clutter and the junk and we can give ourself more clarity. And in that space we can become more creative. Now, of course, if you're a writer, writer's block is always real, but giving yourself a little bit of that clear space gives us more time to be ultimately more creative. - You can create the conditions. - Yes. - And creativity doesn't need to be good in order to exist. - Yes. - And on that note, folks, I have to say you have so many fans (indistinct) and so I just want to share a little bit of what we're hearing with you. This comes from Andre. "I am an avid hiker of Cringe Mountain." Akuna says, "Be the person who opens your own doors." Powerful. - Yes. I love that one. Mildred, "Introverts have superpowers, deep thinkers, and they're listeners." And Shubhum, "Your answer really helped. We all know consistency is the key and with evergreen content it becomes even easier." Goldie, thank you so much for joining us today. That was really helpful. - Thank you so much for having me. - Folks, that's our time today. We hope you're leaving this conversation with a lot of new actions to try. I want you to share your favorite on LinkedIn using the hashtag #WatchWithPremium. Tag me, tag Goldie, we want to hear from you and we'll jump into the conversation. Okay, now here's one small challenge for you before you log off. If you haven't already, scroll through the comments and find someone that you can connect with. Make it someone whose contribution to today's chat resonated. Be brave, say hello. Your network grows one real connection at a time. And if you want more conversations like this one, visit linkedin.com/events to see what's coming up next. Thanks again for tuning in, everyone. See you next time.